Lone Soul
by Angel-chan Desu
Summary: The lonely painting child wanders the gallery's secret areas, sealed off from the world. She has her fellow creations to converse with, but what she wishes for is someone who can respond to her questions, a true friend.


The crudely drawn world was silent, such a thing that forever creeped out the other art works of the gallery. Not the Sketchbook's inhabitant. She enjoyed the silence. It allowed her to think, and to draw without interruption. But lately, she was beginning to find fault with the former.

Normally, she wouldn't mind thinking. She was quite imaginative. She could come up with games she could either play on her own, or involve the others. However, she had lately been thinking about how the silence made her feel empty inside...

One day, she decided to ask the ladies.

"My dear, that is the human mortal emotion loneliness," the Lady in Red chuckled. The Lady in Blue nodded and tittered, "Yes, we're forever seeing human males wandering outside our portraits exhibiting such a thing."

"You needn't concern yourself with it, child, it'll simply make you a bore," the Lady in Green said rather haughtily. This upset the girl. While she wandered off, ignoring her small, red-eyed companion, the Lady in Purple watched from her spot on the wall, feeling sorry for the small child.

She reached forward until her hands were resting on the glass that trapped her in the frame, and began to push. She pushed until the glass started to give way, before the sheet broke under the force. She gasped as she suddenly fell forward. Fortunately, she manged to catch herself on her frame.

The breaking of the glass caught the other ladies' attentions.

"What _are_ you doing?" the Lady in Green frowned, cocking one eyebrow. The Lady in Blue shushed her friend, grinning, "This should be good if she's trying to break out." With the three silenced (Not that she was paying them any attention in the first place), the Lady in Purple prepared her hands on the wall outside her frame and pushed once more.

Eventually, her frame began to tip forward. She prepared her hands to stop her fall. She bit back a gasp as she hit the floor, a heavy weight on her back. Glancing over her shoulder, she felt despair as she realised her frame had fallen with her - she was unable to be parted from it.

Pushing this minor setback from her mind and focusing on why she had dismounted from the wall, she began to crawl rather pathetically in the direction the child had wandered off in.

"My goodness. What would compel her to do that?" the Lady in Red muttered. The Lady in Blue shrugged, then bounced enthusiastically in her frame and said, "Why don't we follow her and see?"

"And how do you suppose we do that?" the Lady in Green growled, unamused.

"We just do what she did of course!" their blue companion giggled. And so, she proceeded to do so, with the other two simply shrugging and following her, to the Lady in Green's annoyance.

* * *

"W-wait! Hold on!" The blonde child stopped. Turning, her eyes widened at the sight of the painting crawling towards her.

"Wah? Ms Purple, what are you doing?" She ran towards the woman and bent to her level.

"M-my dear, you have been feeling lonely?" The girl, surprised by the sudden question, nodded.

"Then trust me when I tell you that you don't have to ignore such a feeling. Ignoring it won't make it go away. In fact, it'll just grow worse. Loneliness can do things to a person, and even a painting. I would dread to see you consumed by such a thing before my very eyes."

The child looked down.

"But what can I do about it? I mean, aside from you ladies, I can't really talk to anyone else. The mannequins can't talk cause they've got no heads, the mannequin heads just ignore me, and the dolls, though good listeners, can't reply when I ask them something. And, no offence, but your friends just seem...too different for me."

The Lady in Purple smiled.

"Ah, but my dear, there is an entire world out there, filled with humans. All you would have to do is find a way out of the frame this world is hidden behind. And believe me when I tell you, I would never dream of a human who couldn't fall for a beautiful, bright child as yourself."

"You mean it?" The painting nodded.

"Of course."

"Well well well, what's going on here?" The child gasped while the woman's eyes widened. The blonde jumped to her feet and the Lady in Purple rather awkwardly turned round to see her fellow ladies crawling up behind them, several mannequins behind them.

"Telling our dear child here the opposite of what we just told her?" the Lady in Green, who had originally spoken, growled.

"We honestly didn't expect this of you," the Lady in Red frowned, crossing her arms.

"N-no, this isn't-" the Lady in Purple stuttered, trying to explain herself, only for one of the mannequins, at the Lady in Blue's motion, to step forward and grab her.

"Stop! Where are you taking her?" the child asked, trying to run after the mannequin.

"Somewhere where she can stop filling your head with nonsense," the Lady in Green replied. The Lady in Red rested a hand on the child's ankle and told her gently, "Come now, let's return to your-"

"No!" the child yelled, cutting off the lady. Surprised, the painting ended up tumbling backwards, relying on the Lady in Blue catching her. However, she too was surprised and wasn't expecting to catch her friend, so ended up collapsing too.

"You two are hopeless. Hmm?" the Lady in Green muttered, then she spotted the girl running down the corridor.

_'I don't want to remain lonely. I don't want to go back to my Sketchbook alone. I want to fill the silence in this gallery._

_I want friends.'_

* * *

She made it to the large painting depicting the human art gallery without interruption. Throwing herself against the painting, she sobbed silently, pressing her cheek against the canvas.

"Let me through," she whispered. She collapsed to her knees, letting the tears fall onto her dress and staining the green a darker shade. She felt something nudging against her and looked up to see the small doll. She sniffed.

"What?" The doll merely squeaked as it hopped up onto her lap and borrowed into her chest. She smiled.

"Thanks." The two sat in silence while the girl wiped her face with her sleeve. Then, she spoke up, causing the doll to look up at her.

"I...I really do want friends. The paintings, the mannequins, you...you're all good to me. But I want someone to laugh with, to play with. Someone who will talk to me, and give me soothing words of comfort when I'm down. You understand, right?" The doll nodded, squeaking again at the movement.

"Would you help me then?" Another squeaky nod. She smiled and hugged the doll tighter, making it squeak again.

"Thank you."

* * *

The whispers were all she needed to know someone had finally come.

"A child in the gallery, in our gallery." "Who's that man with her?" "Why are they here?"

So she ran, trying to find them, so she could see who they were. She could follow them, find out what they were like, decide if they would be appropriate friends for her.

_'My wish has come true. And not just one potential friend, two!'_

She ran on, down the corridor. She was near the door when it suddenly opened, knocking her to the ground.

"Ah, I'm so sorry!" She opened her eyes and looked up to see a girl with long brunette hear and red eyes looking down, concerned. The man behind her said, "You need to be more careful." He bent down and offered a hand to the blonde.

"Are you okay?" he asked. The girl bent down too, and said, "I really am sorry."

"I-it's alright. Really. I'm fine," she told them, taking the man's hand.

"Thank goodness for that. Are you trapped here too?" the man with odd, lavender coloured hair asked.

"Huh? I-I guess..."

"Then you're just like us," he smiled. Motioning to himself, he added, "I'm Garry. And this," he continued, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder, "is Ib."

"Oh. Well nice to meet you, Ib." Ib gave a small courtesy, smiling, "You too...uh..."

"Oh, right. And your name?" Garry asked. The blonde blinked, then smiled. Like Ib, she curtsied.

"My name is Mary. Pleased to meet you."

* * *

**I am in love with this game lately. Seriously.**

**Mary is my favourite character, and she's so sweet...when she's being DereDere. :3**

**Honestly, I quite like this. Also, you're probably wondering who the Lady in Purple is.**

**I can't remember if there was one in the game, but if there wasn't, then we can guess that the mannequin disposed of her...permanently.**

**Still, awesome game, and I love it. Thanks for reading. :D**

**Angel-chan x**


End file.
